Defining the blues

[forwarded from somewhere]
A surreal response to the question "What is the blues?", made by one
of the blues' elder statesmen:

"You know, old folks say, it's a long lane don't have no end and a bad
wind don't never change. But one day, back when Hoover was president, I
was driving my cart down Beale Street, and I seen a rat, sitting on top
of a garbage can, eating a onion, crying."